


This Is Not A Romance With The Road

by afrikate



Series: Road Buddies [1]
Category: Marvel Secret Wars Battleworlds, Planet Hulk (Secret Wars), Planet Hulk - Fandom
Genre: A-Force (2015), Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Fix-It, M/M, Stealth Crossover, The Runaways (Battleworld)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 16:51:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5463935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrikate/pseuds/afrikate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Planet Hulk fix-it, as requested.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sebastianstanstongue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sebastianstanstongue/gifts).



> Sebastianstanstongue, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
> 
> Huge thanks go to uschickens, who came up with the premise and helped work out much of the plot and the humor. You're the best!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky Barnes: drama queen

The first thing Bucky registers is how loud it is. There’s a crowd chanting like he’s back in the Killiseum, but there weren’t that many people in the Red King’s throne room when their fight started. It smells familiar, too, like dust and mud and blood. His head feels cloudy and when he looks, he is back in the Killiseum, and he’s looking down at Steve. _Down_.

The stadium is packed with chanting crowds. Below him, Steve is surrounded by bodies, waving his axe around. Bucky’s not sure where Devil is, but he’s gotta be around here somewhere--he’s tough as nails and he’d never abandon Steve. Bucky figures he’s gotta be dead; last time he saw Steve, he was getting dragged off to see Doom about a trip to Greenland. A one way trip, as it turned out.

‘Welp,’ Bucky thinks, ‘I guess I’ll be looking after the big lug in the Afterlife, too. No rest for the wicked.’ He’s resigned to it--he tied his star to Steve a long time ago and it makes sense he’ll be waiting for him on this side of the divide.

The crowd is getting louder, until suddenly there’s a hush. That asshole sports anchor is striding onto the Killiseum grounds, carrying a trophy and shouting something about how the tournament was a classic. Bastard’s wearing white like he’s never fought a day in his life and he’s surrounded by guards like always. It makes him cocky enough to walk right up to Steve, acting like he’s congratulating him, not looking down on another stupid gladiator who managed to survive.

Bucky has time to think, ‘What a grade A asshole, eh, Steve,’ except then Steve’s grabbing that asshole sports anchor and shouting, “Devil, now!” and there’s some weird vertigo and Devil’s growling is loud enough to be on the inside of his brain and then---

Well, then it feels like Steve and his prisoner have stepped inside his mouth which is weird and gross and… Mmmmm…

***

When Bucky resurfaces, every limb has been tied down and there are a bunch of Doom’s soldiers with spears and guns and he… roars?

Well, ok, someone roars and it sounds like Devil and like it’s really, really close by. There’s another voice in his head making grunting angry noises and this is really, really not good. Also, from his limited viewpoint he can’t see Steve and that other voice notes they can’t smell him, either, and seriously, if this is the Afterlife, Bucky wants his money back.

The other voice doesn’t understand what he means. FFRRRRRAAARRRRRR?

‘Devil?’

GRRARR.

‘That’s you. In my brain.’

FRARRRK.

‘Um, or I’m in your brain?’

RAAAR. Devil sounds pretty positive about who is in what body.

‘And you aren’t dead.’

GRRAAAAARRR.

He groans a heartfelt, “Motherfucker!” and Devil seems to agree. Fuck.

‘So,’ Bucky thinks, ‘Turns out that’s what that amulet does.’

***

When you are tied up and held hostage by a company of Thors and any time you twitch you get a cattle prod to someplace sensitive, you have a lot of time to try to stay still and piece the last few days together. You also learn a lot about your new host body, particularly that Steve had been half-right in thinking that Devil was intelligent enough to be a warbound. Devil is certainly sarcastic enough to be bonded to that little shit.

Devil has been surprisingly ok with Bucky first having a screaming freak out inside his head and then attempting to take control his body. This is probably because Bucky is really, really bad at it. Bucky can’t even flick his? Devil’s? their? tail, never mind manage coordinated movement. Turns out controlling a two-ton killing machine body’s a little harder than learning how to use a mechanical arm. Who knew?

Bucky keeps trying, though, and Devil lets him, because it’s distracting them both from the fact that Steve hasn’t come back. Bucky, at least, has a bad feeling about this. He’s gleaned enough from the guards’ conversation to know Steve’s been dragged into an audience with Doom. Given that the last time Bucky saw that metal fucker ended in a fight to his apparent death and his current circumstances, he assumes this isn’t going to end well.

Devil’s growls sound kind of like agreement. Or like untamed aggression, but he’ll take that as agreement.

***

Bucky really shouldn’t be surprised the next time he’s instantly transported, since that seems to be a new theme in his life. He’s back in Doom’s throne room. _They_ are back in Doom’s throne room, all three of them, and it’s a relief to see Steve, looking defiant as usual, even though he’s kneeling in front of Doom and Strange, chained to the floor.

“--on one condition,” Steve’s saying, “I want my T. Rex back.”

Three guesses what Steve just agreed to, and Bucky only needs one. Greenland was pretty shit the first he went; he can’t imagine it’s going to be any better while he’s a third wheel to the Steve-and-Devil show.

‘Steve! _Steve!_ You complete and total moron, this is a bad-- Steve! _Steve!! Stop waving around that axe and listen to me!!!_ ’

Bucky’s managed to get control of the arms at least, but waving them around and making roaring not-human sounds accomplishes exactly nothing. Meanwhile, Devil makes a sound like AAAWWWWW, only a lot more growly, that Bucky’s not prepared to acknowledge. Stupid dinosaur.

And there’s the third round of instant teleportation, which is at least two rounds too many. Bucky smells ozone, rot, and corruption and thinks, ‘Of course we’re in Greenland. Of course.’

***

Bucky kind of tunes out for the ride across wherever Strange dumped them. For one thing, he’d ended up someplace different on his own trip to the Mud Kingdom so he doesn’t really have any insights. For another, he’s just exhausted. Devil clearly knows how his own body works, Bucky’s just extra baggage right now. He tries to do the mental equivalent of taking a cat-nap, and Devil doesn’t seem to mind.

When he wakes up, it’s because something is trying to kill them. Of course.

Giant hulk grubs are boiling up from the ground, making high-pitched screeing noises. They have way too many legs and disgusting lipless mouths that latch on viciously. Steve’s shouting and swinging the axe around, chopping the things into pieces, green ichor flying. Devil’s roaring something about how horrible these things taste while he tries to chomp them into oblivion. Bucky takes over their body for a moment and _ugh_ , they do taste horrible. Gross. He gives control back to Devil--they’re getting better at that--and tries to remember the last time nothing was trying to kill them. It’s surprisingly difficult.

Then he has no time to think because the disgusting grub-things are coming like crazy, they must’ve they stumbled over some kind of nest. They’re swarming Steve and Devil’s trying to fight their way over to him, because Steve is not losing his life to a bunch of _grubs_ on Bucky’s watch---

Out of nowhere, there’s an explosion of light and sound that blows both Steve and Devil into the air. It has the side effect of blowing the grubs up into a pile of buggy corpses, which is pretty nice, but Bucky has learned from hard experience not to trust anything in Greenland, no matter how helpful it is. The 10-foot Hulk looming over Steve might have saved their bacon, but Bucky’s pretty sure that just the fact that he calls Steve “Captain” means everything’s about to go to shit.

***

S’nice to wake up like this, all curled around Steve. They sleep like this a lot, Bucky spooned around Steve. Of course, he’s never been in the body of a giant murderous lizard before, but whatever, at this point he’ll take what he can get. Bucky cuddles them a little closer and Devil makes a quiet sort of purring. Steve’s making whimpering sounds in his sleep, sounds like he’s having a nightmare. Well, the day has certainly provided enough material for one. Who’s he kidding, their lives to date have provided plenty of nightmare fodder.

“I’m up, I’m up--!” Steve shouts, lurching violently awake.

Devil’s waking, too, with a little, “NRF,” and then Steve, the ungrateful asshole tells them, “Your breath is foul.”

‘Fuck you very much, Steve’

“ _RMPH!_ ”

“It’s your own fault for eating garbage and vermin,” Steve says

'See if we eat gamma grubs to save your life again!'

***

Bucky doesn't trust this new guy. He's sent by Doom, so he’s already suspect, and he's got some kind of laser weapon that blew Steve and Devil both off their feet, so he’s clearly a threat. He never seems to shut up and on top of that he apparently knew other versions of Steve, which is pretty fucked up. Bucky’d heard stories in the Killiseum, of course, but he'd never seriously believed that multiverse crap. Doc Green acts like he knows Steve, though, which probably means he knows just enough to manipulate him. God knows, Steve's easy as pie to manipulate if you know what buttons to push.

Ugh, pie. He misses pie. It makes him think about Gramma Hubbard's pies, which were the best thing he's ever had in his mouth. Well, the best food thing. Oh god, he should stop thinking about this while he’s not in his own body.

Bucky’s listening to Green outlining his plan to get them through Greenland, “We’ll travel this way until the river cuts left, we’ll cut right, around the Gamma Mountains. It will take more time, but we’ll avoid the barrens and the Tribal Hulks.”

‘Steve, you definitely want to avoid the Tribal Hulks. Those guys were a pain in the ass to deal with.’

“And then… we arrive at the Mud Kingdom. After that, you kill the Red King and the mission for Doom is complete. And assuming all goes to plan, we free your Bosom Bucky.”

Well, that confirms it, the Red King again. God damn it. Wait, “bosom Bucky?” Well, hell, this guy definitely knows enough to manipulate Steve.

‘Keep an eye on this guy, Devil. He’s no good.’

“SNORRXX”

‘Right.’

***

They’re making their way through the jungle, which Bucky thinks he remembers. There’s thick green foliage everywhere, and it seems to fight their every move. Steve’s riding on Devil’s back (Bucky is _not thinking about it_ ) and Green’s rabbiting on about how he has seen the true nature of the world. Bucky’s seen the true nature of the world too, between the war and the Killiseum, and his body dying while fighting the Red King. ‘You don’t hear me going on and on and ON about it.’

GRRRARRR.

‘Shut up, Devil.’

And then, the motherfucking bull hulks show up, big enough and mean enough that even Green is shouting “Run!” At least Steve is smart enough to listen to him and takes off running. Goddamn things chased BUck a couple of miles last time Bucky was in this jungle and his sword barely made a dent. He and Devil go on the attack; at least dinosaur teeth can rip through their hide.

‘Get the--’

“ROOAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!”

‘Just bite him!’

“RAAAARRRRRGHHHHH!”

'Fuck those fucking things.'

“SNORK.”

All right, where’s-- ‘Steve! What the fuck? Why can’t you ever stay where I put you?’

Devil’s laughing at him as they stride through the jungle, Devil using his massive snout to try to find Steve while Bucky rants, ‘Fuck you, Steve, really. This is exactly what I would expect--hostile environment, shady companion, righteous-to-you mission, of course you disappear!’

“GGGGGRRARRRRRGGHHHH”

‘That’s nice, buddy, but it’s only a righteous mission if you don’t know I’m right here.’

“RRRRRAAARRRGGGGHHH!”

‘If he’d just stop getting into trouble for like 15 minutes we could figure out how to tell him.’

“SNORK.”

‘Fuck you, Devil! Wait, what’s that sound?’

“GRAAAAAK.”

‘Of course Steve went over a fucking waterfall. I’m going to kill him.’ Bucky tries to bury his face in his hands, but Devil’s arms are too short.

“SNORKKK.”

Devil retakes control of his body, mumbling about ridiculous human gestures (or at least that’s what Bucky takes away from the muted roars). Then they’re falling ass over teakettle over a waterfall.

‘We’re coming, Steve,’ Bucky thinks. ‘Don’t do anything more stupid until we get there.’

Of course, when they get there, Steve’s being drowned by a lake monster, and Doc Green is just taunting it.

‘That’s great, Steve. You had to find someone just as suicidally stupid as you and then follow them _over a waterfall!_ ’

The stupid lake monster is slippery as hell, but it turns out that those back legs are good for more than just running once Devil gets some leverage. They switch off during the fight--Bucky’s got a strategy, Devil’s got the fine motor control. It takes a while of clawing and biting the hell out of it, but eventually the thing is so much salty gamma-flavored meat. Like everything else here it tastes fucking foul. Devil swallows some down and Bucky refuses to think about it. And they better not hear word-fucking-one about bad breath from Captain All-My-Decisions-Are-Bad-Ones.

Steve’s telling Doc Green off, “No one has defeated Devil. No man, no monster--and no Hulk!”

‘Well, thanks, buddy. It was a joint effort, though.’

“GRARRR.”

‘At least 60-40.”

“RAR.”

“Thank you, brother, thank you.” It feels nice when Steve pets their snout. Bucky gets an impression from Devil of warmth, like lying on a sun-warmed rock, and a feeling of contentment.

‘You’re purring.’

“PRRRRR…”

‘Seriously?’

“PRRRRRRR…”

‘Yeah, ok, it feels pretty nice.’ Way too soon, however, the nose pets stop, as Doc Green gets them moving again. Asshole.

***

So. That’s a wall of Hulk skulls. Bucky’s pretty glad he managed to miss that on his last trip through scenic Greenland. Kind of intimidating.

Doc Green’s doing his lecturing thing again, going on about “...Man, however important, has no relation to salvation but Gamma is the communion of war. It is through Gamma that we may touch eternity…”

‘Jesus Christ, Devil, this guy just never shuts up.’

GRRRAR.

‘It’s getting to Steve, though,’ thinks Bucky, listening to Steve outline one of the stupider plans he’s had the misfortune of hearing.

“At the Mud Kingdom, I will find and free Bucky on my own. I have no gripe with the Red King. Doom can do his own killing. Or you can do it for him.”

‘He is going to freak out when he figures out my body’s dead.’

RAAAARRRR!

‘Telling him the situation didn’t work in Doom’s throne room, Devil, what makes you think it’s going to work now?’

SNORK.

‘Look, buddy, Steve’s got a head of steam built up. The best thing we can do is just make sure he stays alive long enough that I can figure out how to explain. If your arms were longer--’

GRARK?

‘Yeah, buddy, I said it. Longer arms, and I could try some sign language.’

As it is, the best thing Bucky can think of is trying to spell shit out, like in that old tv show, where they spell out HELP with coconut shells. He’s going to have to make his message to Steve short and sweet.

‘Just let me know the next time something attacks us, ok? I gotta think.’

RAR.

***

‘Are you kidding me?’

BRRRAAARRR.

Devil sounds sheepish, which he damn well should be.

‘You left Steve alone. In enemy territory. With Doc Green.’

RRRAAARRRR GRRRAAAKKHHHH. GRRRAOOORRR.

‘Oh, so the storm confused you.’

BRRRAAARRR.

‘And now you’re telling me it smells an awful lot like Steve’s blood.’

RAAR.

‘God damn it, Devil! Knowing Steve, we’ll be lucky if he just got captured by a bunch of Hulks.’

GRRAAAR.

‘You’re sorry! Well that’s nice, buddy. You damn well should be sorry!’

Bucky takes a breath, tries to think beyond his panic. ‘Ok, look, there’s probably not enough blood on the ground for him to be dead. You better hope he’s not dead, Devil, or I am going to kill you.’

ROOOOO.

‘Buddy, he ain’t gonna end up in your brain.’

GRAWR.

‘No, really, and even if he did, do you want all of us here? That would be kind of crowded. Also, weird. Well, weirder than it’s been so far.’

PRRRT.

‘I mean, ok, buddy, that’s nice, I appreciate it. We appreciate it. You’re a great warbound, but um. I’m kind of hoping to get out of here one day.’

GRAWWWR.

‘Look, let’s just find Steve, we can talk about this later.’

AAARROOAAAA.

They take off over the barren wasteland, following the scent of Steve’s blood. It’s hours of jogging--whatever Devil did to get off course in the storm, he got really lost. Eventually the blood trail runs out, but by that point Bucky can see the outline of buildings in the distance. Looks like they’re getting close to the Red Kingdom’s castle. Bucky shivers a little, and Devil kind of whines.

‘Fuck,’ Bucky thinks. ‘I did not miss this place.’

Devil makes the unilateral decision to start knocking down buildings and scaring Hulks. It’s totally something Bucky can get behind.

‘Take that, you fucker!’

“ROARRRRR!!!!”

“AROOOOO!”

Bucky starts laughing, while Devil turns back and forth, his tail taking out some shoddy Hulk construction. God, he’d forgot all about Steve’s absolutely ridiculous Devil-call. It’s as hilarious as ever. Devil, on the other hand, is delighted and calls back an answering, “GRAAAAUGH!”

‘Seriously?’

‘SNORK.’

‘Well, yeah, you’re right. He’s our dumbass.’

When they reach Steve, they get enough nose pets that Devil’s about ready to forget about the hostile force of Hulks and roll over to show his belly. Thank god Bucky’s still on the alert, because the Hulks haven’t decided to magically give up, despite Devil taking out half the town.

A gang of Hulks rushes toward them, and then Steve’s shouting “FOR BUCKY!”

(kind of embarrassing there, Steve)

and aiming himself at the most fortified building around, expecting Devil to carry him there. Jesus fucking Christ.

“Can you get me close, warbound?” Steve asks.

‘Look, we could just take off,’ Bucky offers.

“HARRRPH!”

‘You aren’t even listening to me, are you? He’s not going to find me there, you get that, right?’

“RRRAAAARRGHHH!”

Which is when Steve leaps onto a tower of the castle into a group of Hulks and Bucky loses sight of him _again_.”

‘Steve! _STEVE!_ God damn it!’

***

There are a lot of Hulks and a lot of spears. Bucky’s pretty grateful for Devil’s thick skin, which is really what’s saving them right now because Devil’s too enraged at the Hulks and Steve disappearing to listen to any of Bucky’s attempts to come up with a strategy. He accepts that they are fighting a holding action, too many Hulks to get into the Red King’s palace quickly.

Bucky admits he’s not a lot of use right now anyway, too worried about what Steve’s going to see when he faces down the Red King, too worried that Steve’s boy scout plan to just tell the Red King he’s not going to fight him is going to get him killed. Steve’s been holding out hope all along that this is still a rescue mission and that he and Bucky are going to ride off into the sunset. Whatever he finds out from the Red King is going to break him--Bucky only hopes Steve can hold on long enough that he and Devil can get in there and help him make an escape. Of course, Doc Green followed Steve into the castle, so he doesn’t just have to worry about the Red King, there’s a good chance he’ll get an axe in the back from that asshole.

***

Bucky loses track of time as they take on Hulk after Hulk. The fuckers are relentless, keep coming with their spears, leaping onto Devil’s head and his tail. They throw them off, biting some, crushing others. It feels like they’ve been doing this for hours, until there’s a shout from the top of the castle.”

“MUD KINGDOM!”

That’s Steve. That’s _Steve!_

‘Devil! He’s alive! Oh, thank god.’

“RAAAOAR!”

Steve’s holding something up and waving it around--Wait, is that a head?

‘Good job, Steve! Nice work!’

“HERE IS YOUR KING!” Steve shouts, tossing the Red King’s head onto the ground. The Hulks are gathered silently around it and Bucky feels a nice sense of vindication settling. ‘Take that, you fucker! Kill my body, huh? That’s right, my warbound just killed your ass!’

Steve jumps down to join them, while Bucky’s still gloating over the head. Devil seems pretty pleased as well, and the Hulks have backed off so they’re working on shaking the spears out of their skin when Steve starts petting their nose.

“PRRRRRRR…”

‘Yeah, nose pets really are the best.’

“Devil... Brother… All is lost…”

‘Oh, shit,’ thinks Bucky.

“SNRF? SNFF SNFFFF--”

‘Is that my arm? That’s my arm. Oh, shit, that’s my arm and Steve’s holding it and--’

“I am sorry. I told you we would find him. Bucky… he is _gone_.”

‘Steve. _STEVE_. Buddy, no, I’m here. I’m right here.’ Fuck, Bucky can’t get at him, can’t make him see, and Devil’s no help. He’s freaking out, too. Fuck.

‘Devil. _DEVIL_ , I’m here, I’m still here.’

“GRRRAAUGH--?”

‘I’m still in your head, like I have been since the Killiseum. I swear. I’m here. We gotta tell Steve, Devil, before he goes crazy.’

SNRK--

“I am afraid, brother,” Steve says, and he’s hugging their nose and Devil smells salt, which Bucky thinks is probably tears. Ugh, no. Steve crying is the worst. Bucky hates it when he cries.

“Bucky, he always made me feel like there was hope. That the future was worth fighting for. But there is no future.”

‘Oh, shit, Steve, no. No, no, no, don’t you even think about it. Don’t even…’

“Is there _anything_ left for us besides blood and violence? We should _never_ have come here.”

‘I told you that back in Doom’s throne room, you idiot. But do you ever listen? No. No, you do not.’

There are a lot of manly tears. A lot of them, and Devil is snorting softly and Bucky feels guilty as hell. ‘Look, Steve, I swear, I’ll figure something out. I’ll tell you somehow and I’ll figure out a way to get my body back and we’ll be together, ok?’

SNRRRK!

‘Yes, all three of us, one big happy family.’

FWAK.

‘Look, don’t do anything rash, ok, Steve? I know that’s your general solution, but seriously, let’s just calm down. Devil, you have to keep him from being stupid, ok?’

“RAAAUUGH. AAAUUUUUGH!”

“Come, brother. Let us go. Do not look back, Devil. _Never look back._ ”

‘Yeah, ok, Steve, let’s not look back. Let’s just… go into this desert wasteland and find somewhere with a bunch of rocks and I can figure out how to tell you that I’m here. Ok, we’ll just take it step by step, right? Step by step.’

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Step 1: find a bunch of rocks.  
> Step 2: write a message.  
> Step 3: profit?

Steve is still sleeping when Bucky gets Devil up the next day and they go to investigate the rock situation. There are a lot of them, which is good, so Bucky starts trying to move them into some kind of formation. It takes a while before Devil gets it--he’s got no experience with writing, so that really shouldn’t surprise Bucky

With Devil’s short little arms, he has to bend way over to place the rocks. His tail’s up for balance, so that’s out of the way, but his giant back feet are a problem. He manages to get the B done, and then knocks the bottom of it when they turn to pick up more rocks for the U. The whole process is far more time consuming than it should be, and he’s probably written the message three or four times before it’s legible.

It’s a giant pain in the ass.

He manages to write B U C K Y and H E R E by the time Steve gets up. It’s not much of a message, but Bucky’s thinking that maybe he can get by on charades to make it clear that he’s in Devil’s head. Or maybe scratching out a message with the forearms? He’s planning on playing it by ear. He’s not planning on Steve taking forever to notice, so that eventually Bucky is forced to bend down and push him with their snout in the direction of the words.

“What, Devil! What is so important--”

And then Steve sees the writing and breaks off. He stands there mouth opening and closing, blinking idiotically. He tries to say something once or twice, and then he just flat out wails, throws himself onto their snout, and sobs. Great, ugly sobs that, Devil makes clear, are unpleasantly wet. Bucky tries to nudge him, snorts a little bit, but Steve will not be stopped now that the dam is broken. It takes a long time but eventually, slowly, he regains coherence.

“Devil, Devil, yes. You are right, my friend. Bucky is here, he is with us, even if we can’t see him. He will always be with us, watching us in the afterlife.”

‘Ugh. No, Steve, no. I’m HERE. Right here in Devil’s head!’

It’s no use, Steve is going on and on, telling Devil how Bucky has always taken care of him, that he always will. It’s nice, he guesses, but morbid as hell when Bucky is actually here. Eventually they give up, Steve runs out of steam, and Devil decides they are going hunting, over there, where there is sunshine and no unexpected wetness. Bucky just rolls his metaphorical eyes.

***

Bucky’s no quitter so they try again each of the next three days. Each time, Steve bursts into tears, even when Bucky tries changing up the message to BUCKY WITH DEVIL and BUCKY  IN HEAD. 

‘Steve, Steve! Your dinosaur just wrote words and you can’t stop and try to figure out what that means? What is wrong with you???’

It is a complete and total failure. Bucky can’t even bury his head in his hands because these arms are _too god damned short_.

On top of that, Steve is like the mopiest mope to ever mope and Devil’s giving him a run for his money, between his pissiness at Steve crying on their snout and his frustration at Bucky’s insistence at moving rocks around. When Steve isn’t sobbing manly tears of grief, he’s cuddling Bucky’s goddamn _left arm_.

‘Seriously, Rogers, _seriously_? My arm? My _arm_? That is sick, Steve. I mean, ok, I get that this whole thing is traumatic and obviously it’s going to take more than a T. rex _spontaneously learning how to write_ for you to understand that something weird is going on, and yeah, really, no one expected _discorporation and dinosaur possession_ , but really, you can’t take a few minutes out of your busy schedule of crying and cuddling body parts to _think_? Ugh. I can’t even look at you right now.’

Ok, Bucky isn’t really that much of an asshole. He gets that this is horrible, and in the back of his mind, he can admit that if things were reversed he’d be completely off the rails. Honestly, at this point, he and Devil are what’s keeping Steve going--Devil’s getting him up every day, getting him moving, forcing him to eat the food they catch. By day four, everything is complete shit. They’ve been wandering through Greenland’s desert, Steve’s exhausted and cried out, Bucky’s fed up with Steve, and Devil’s pissed at them both. It’s no wonder Steve ends up in some pathetic Hulk dive in the ass end of nowhere drowning his sorrows in some truly rank-smelling brew.

***

When he thinks about it, he figures Steve has every right to try to drown his sorrows. Hell, Bucky would be if it were an option.

RAAAAR

‘Think about it from his point of view, buddy. He's lost his home, his family, his mission, and now me.’

GWWWARRRRR

‘Yeah, Devil, I know he has you. And you're great. Don't get me wrong. He knows that. He knows you're his warbound.’

RROOOAAARRR

‘Yeah, I know. It's just. Look, humans have all these feelings.’

SNIKKSS? PRRT?

‘Yeah, nose petting feelings. Warm rock feelings. And he thinks I'm gone forever, and I can't figure out how to let him know I'm not.’

RAAAAR. It feels like an internal nudge, fucking weird. Devil clearly means for it to be comforting, though.

‘Thanks, buddy. Look, I'm just worried, Steve doesn't think things through when he's upset. Like, remember that fight with the Wolverines, when he got all angry and decided to just rush them? He didn't walk for a week after that. Without the super serum he'd be dead.’

GRRAAAAR

‘We've had this talk, Devil. I don't think dying’s going to make him end up in your head too. There was. Look, there were extenuating circumstances. Magical extenuating circumstances. If he dies, it's just the two of us.’

GRAWK!

‘No, I don't want that either. So, you know, just keep an eye on him.’

****

Bucky can’t remember the last time Steve went on a bender. Before the serum, Steve’d had barely any tolerance; after, they’d been too busy fighting aliens and shit. The last few years haven’t been conducive to anything but fighting to stay alive. But he’s been drinking non-stop for something like three days (what, it’s not easy keeping track of time while hanging out in a dinosaur’s head) and Bucky’s starting to worry that whatever gamma-infused alcoholic nightmare he’s been sucking down is starting to fuck with his brain.

“Devil! DEVIL! Devil, I’ve figured it out!” Steve’s stumbling and waving his arms around, shouting at them even though some dinosaurs were sleeping.

‘Figured out what, buddy? Did you finally start getting curious about the rock messages?’

“RARX!”

“Revenge will be ours!”

‘Revenge. What revenge, Steve? You killed the Red King. I think you might’ve killed Green, too. That’s some damn good revenge, Steve. Who’s left?’

“DOOM WILL PAY!”

‘--OH SHIT.’

***

So, it turns out Doom has a kid. She’s the headmaster of his fancy boarding school for the best and brightest of Battleworld, which Steve knows because one of the Hulk’s kids goes there. (Really? Bucky hasn’t been too impressed by the hulks’ general intelligence levels, but he supposes there have to be a few smart ones.) Steve’s got it into his head that he can make Doom pay for what he did to Bucky by kidnapping and killing the woman. And he’s come up with possibly the worst scheme Bucky’s ever heard for getting his revenge.

‘Tactical genius my ASS.’

***

Everything about this is a terrible idea. They are “sneaking” into the Thors’ stronghold. Note: T. rexes can't sneak through a stone castle. For one thing, Devil is huge and the castle is only moderately sized. For another, the stone means that their back claws make terrible scraping sounds. Periodically Steve turns around and waves at them so as to indicate they should be silent. Shockingly, this is unsuccessful since it does nothing about the aforementioned space, mass, and claw problems. So it really isn't a surprise when they hear running feet and angry shouts and honestly, at this point, Bucky is just about done with this complete and utter farce of a plan.

‘Fuck you, Steve. Your plans are the _worst_.’

Devil roars as something lodges in their tail and Steve shouts as he swings his axe, and then they are fighting their way through a rank of half dressed Thors toward the heart of the castle because Steve assumes that's where their portal is. It's probably a good guess, but Bucky’s not in the mood to give him credit for anything right now.

Granted, there's something important ahead of them because there are suddenly more Thors and Bucky and Devil are swiping at them and biting and Steve's yelling, “For Bucky!” which is really embarrassing--

“ROOOOAAAARRRRR!”

‘I mean, thanks, buddy, but you know I'm right here.’

“AAAAARRRRR!!!”

‘Yeah, yeah.’

\--when they manage to break out into a larger, more open space and, huh. It looks like Steve was right. That definitely seems to be a portal of some kind.

“Hold them off, Devil! I have to check the controls!”

‘Ugh, really, Steve? You are horrible with machinery and this is still the stupidest plan you've ever come up with. And I really, really mean that!’

Devil dips his head, catching a Thor in his jaws and then whipping him back at the rest. Several of them go flying backwards which seems to buy them a little bit of breathing space. Which is good, because Steve is taking his sweet time at the control panel over there.

‘Steve, come on, buddy. These Thors are smarter than they look and they are definitely regrouping!’

“GRRRAAAARRRR.”

“Just wait, Devil, these controls are unlike anything I’ve seen.” Steve’s poking at the buttons, and Bucky represses the urge to facepalm again. (It never works. Stupid tiny arms.) Then, there’s a *snick* and a hum, and the large metal plate in the room shimmers to life.

“There! Devil, hurry!”

Steve’s jumping onto the glowing metal plate, _of course_ , yelling for Devil to join him. Which is, obviously, about the time the Thors come rushing back into the room en masse, clearly planning to overwhelm them with numbers. Bucky would almost rather take his chances with the Thors, who are at least battle-ready warriors and not some school teacher with the bad luck to have Doom as a daddy, but Steve’s bound to get into even more trouble without him. Devil makes a leap with those powerful back legs and they make it onto the portal just as it activates.

***

‘Well,’ Bucky thinks, ‘here we are again.’ He’s shaking their head, and Devil makes a soft “horrk” sound. Turns out jumping through a portal is ten thousand times worse than regular magic teleportation. Their body had _compressed_ somehow, and then _folded_ maybe, and it’s just hard to credit that they made it here in one piece. Devil tries to make sure their tail is still attached and ends up turning in a circle a couple of times. How undignified.

While this is going on, Steve is throwing up his guts in a corner. Good to know that it’s not just them.

HRRRR.

‘Yeah, Devil. That sucked.’

For a short time, the three of them just catch their breath. Devil sniffs over Steve, and gives him a gentle headbutt, which Bucky honestly thinks is too good for the idiot. This is still Steve’s plan, and it’s still the worst plan. ‘For the record, Devil, when everything goes to shit, I told him so.’

SNORK.

It’s quiet for a few seconds; Steve must have gotten rid of everything in his stomach, Devil’s just sniffing the air. And then Bucky hears... something. It’s like… like an echo in his own head, the voice his own, but words he’s never said in his life.

“...you listening? I said _go_. _NOW_.”

It’s his voice, but not, and it’s in his head and there’s a sense of dread that’s his and not-his, and--

‘Devil, run! NOW!’

They’re off, not even waiting for Steve to get to his feet. His shout follows them, but Bucky’s got total control of their body and he knows he needs to get there quick, because the not-his-voice is thinking, ’well, that was stupid, but it was _worth it_.’ There’s a sense of triumph and defeat at the same time and he’s barely paying attention to what’s around him, which seems to be a bunch of students jumping back against the walls as he rushes by and a group of robots which he just crushes underfoot. He hasn’t got time, not nearly enough time---

They slide around a corner, Steve right behind them, to find a dark-haired young man with Bucky's face whose _right_ arm is made of metal. He's kneeling on the ground, surrounded by robots who all have guns to his head. There’s a little girl, too, shouting at the robots, telling them to stop, to “Stand down right now, by order of the headmaster!”

“Bucky--” Steve breathes, “Bucky--”

‘Oh, shit,’ the echo in his head is thinking, ‘this is it.’

‘Fuck!’ Bucky screams, because that’s him, that’s some kind of teenager-Bucky, and despite this little girl demanding that the robots set this him free--

\--they execute him.

There have been a lot of bad moments in Bucky’s life. Alien invaders, a building falling on his head, getting hauled into the Killiseum, fighting the Red King. This vaults over them all into first place, though. It was traumatic enough to see Steve carrying his arm; seeing his own body, his younger analog lying dead on the ground with a hole in his head? It shakes him to the very core.

The robots are asking the little girl what to do next. Headmaster, they call her. That’s important, Bucky thinks, but it’s hazy and he can’t concentrate. He hands control back to Devil; someone should be ready to fight when the girl and her robots notice them.

It’s Steve who ends their stand off. “Bucky,” he groans, falls to the floor by the body. “Bucky…” He gathers the body to his chest, gently, and the girl, suddenly aware of a gladiator and a T. rex in her hallway sucks in a breath.

“Who are you?”

The robots are turning to look at them, but she’s aware enough that she holds out a hand, orders them not to shoot.

“You are the headmaster?” Steve asks, still cradling the body, blood staining the front of his shirt. “You are Doom’s daughter.”

“Yes, that’s me.” Her voice is high and childish, her shoulders slumped. “Why are you… How did you know Bucky?”

Steve ignores that, stares at the girl, the child he was planning to kill to get revenge on Doom. Bucky’s just watching; Devil’s on alert for any more from the robots.

“Bucky called you Valeria.”

“S’ my name,” she says.

“He said, ‘No more killing.’”

“Yeah,” she said, “Was he--”

Steve shakes his head, looks down at the body he's cradling for a moment, then stares straight at her. “Are you going to kill anymore?”

“What?”

“Are you going to kill any more? Are you going to let your robots kill anyone else?”

She looks back at the robots, guns at the ready, then down at the body. She seems fascinated by the blood, by the way it hangs limply in Steve’s arms. “No,” she whispers.

“Valeria.”

She looks up from the blood into Steve’s eyes.

“Do you promise?”

Bucky holds his breath.

Then, high little girl voice says, “Yes. I promise.”

Steve nods once, then looks down at the body that was Bucky. 

‘--That was me, that was--’ Bucky thinks he might be going crazy.

Steve stands up, cradling Bucky (‘not me, NOT ME’) gently to his chest. “We are going. We will not come back.” He steps over to Devil, who obliges by bending down, so that Steve can climb up.

“Be safe, Valeria. And remember your promise.”

She nods and they turn away, back the way they came. As they walk, long strides, Devil’s head low to avoid hitting the ceiling, they hear her in the distance saying, “I want to go home.”

***

Bucky thinks it would be nice to kind of black out for a while. Unfortunately, he’s horribly aware that Steve is on their back, that they’re moving down the hallway the way they came, that there are kids around them, staring and whispering. At least the fucking robots are all crushed into pieces.

They get back to the portal room, and Bucky doesn’t think any of them are ready to go through that misery again, but they clearly have to get away from here. Steve might have let that little girl live, but her daddy will be after them as soon as he figures out what happened. He supposes Steve will head back to Greenland. It’s where they’re supposed to be, anyway, and hopefully Doom won’t be enough of a bastard to follow him.

He watches listlessly as Steve jumps down and goes over to the controls. There’s a weight remaining on their back--Steve must have left--Steve’s trusting Devil to hold--

The platform hums to life, and Steve coaxes Devil onto it, the memory of their last crappy journey still fresh in everyone’s mind. And then there’s a flash, and they’re gone.

***

This time, no one vomits, but Devil’s woozy enough that Bucky’s got to take control _pre-etty_ fast to avoid falling over and crushing Steve. ‘Fucking portals are the worst,’ he thinks, and there’s a low “HROOOM” of agreement. He shakes their head to clear it, which wasn’t really the best idea.

When he can concentrate on anything more than the ringing in their ears, he sees Steve, clutching the body. The body. Not his body. Anyway, clutching, Steve is definitely clutching, and in the darkness around them he sees the outline of what look like hills.

“Come, Devil,” says Steve, and heads a little ways away, to level ground. “We must sleep, brother.”

“HRUX.”

“Even if there is danger here, friend, we must sleep.”

It takes more coaxing from Steve, but in the end, Devil gives in and wanders over to the ground Steve chose, curling up against the hill. He leaves space for Steve to join them, and Steve leans on their flank, still carefully cradling the body. Bucky is carefully not thinking about the extra weight or the hole in the body’s head.

***

They wake up in the morning to birdsong, which is weird. In his time in Greenland, Bucky can’t remember hearing anything sweeter than the cawing of Hulk jays, which are huge and vicious. A couple times they even divebombed Devil. This is the complete opposite, the birds are sweetly singing and the air feels clean and smells sweet. He curls them a little closer around Steve for a minute, remembering what it was like... before... everything.

They shiver a little; it’s colder than they’ve become used to, and that wakes up Steve.

“Devil. Devil!”

‘Don’t even say anything about our breath, Steve, you aren’t exactly minty fresh yourself.’

He rises and looks around, and they do the same. Bucky can say with certainty that this is definitely not Greenland, but other than that he’s got no idea where they ended up. There are rolling green hills and far away, at the edge of his hearing, he thinks he can hear the ocean. Devil huffs a question, and Bucky tries to give him a picture of water that smells clean and salty.

It’s calm and peaceful, which is why, exactly at that moment, three women land in front of them pointing weapons and shouting.

***

It turns out that Steve landed them in someplace called Arcadia. The Arcadians are not exactly happy about that, as they are trying to fly below Doom’s radar and a misplaced gladiator and his T. rex warbound is not exactly low key. They are REALLY not happy when they figure out that Steve has brought a body into their midst. There’s a lot of pointing of weapons and posturing, Devil’s roaring, and Bucky’s so tired, guys. He’s really fucking tired of this total fucking bullshit. UGH.

Finally, finally they seem to reach a standoff. It seems that the women, who are apparently Arcadia’s version of the cops, want to take them before their version of a judge, who will decide what to do with them and whether or not to call the Thors. Steve agrees to go along with them for some reason, Bucky’s not entirely clear, but maybe it’s the fact that this place feels a lot like their old home, when Steve was a law-abiding pipsqueak. Whatever. Bucky’s pretty tired of everything right now.

The march down to whatever the hall of justice is gives the three of them a chance to get a look at the place. The rolling hills slide down toward the water, giving way to the red roofs of what must be the town. ‘S nice. Pretty. Seems peaceful. I mean, people stop and stare as they parade into town, but then it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of dinosaurs here.

RAAAARRR.

‘Yeah, Devil, it’s kind of cold for a dino. I guess.’

GRUUUR.

‘Don’t be a baby.’

***

They end up in front of a lady with green skin who’s taller than Steve.

“We rarely see people from other realms here, stranger. What is your name and your business?”

Bucky’s watching carefully now, but while Steve straightens up to his full height, he isn’t posturing when he says, “Captain Steven Rogers, ma’am. Formerly of the Earth’s Super Soldier Squad. And this is Devil, my warbound.”

She considers this, then asks, “Where do you come from most recently, Captain? And who do you carry there in your arms?”

Steve closes his eyes, takes a breath. “I was a gladiator, in the Killiseum.” There’s a collective gasp. “We were sent to Greenland on an... errand for Doom. After… we went briefly to the university in Doomstadt, but we have come here now for assistance. I seek. We seek assistance for my friend.”

The lady looks concerned at just about everything Steve’s said. “Captain, I have many questions for you, but the most urgent is what assistance we can render your friend. He’s dead, Captain, there is little we can offer you but a fitting burial.”

“No!”

And yeah, Bucky was pretty sure Steve was being too calm. Too bad there’s like six different women holding weapons on them. Bucky thinks he might be able to get to Steve before he goes nuts, but he’ll probably have to knock over at least two of them. He’ll do it if he has to, but he’d rather they get out of this peacefully.

Shockingly, Steve calms on his own.

“No, I seek... a magic-user. I know that… that he’ll be ok.”

‘Magic-user? Magic? Steve, I could kiss you! I'm sorry for all those times I impugned your intelligence. Well, at least half.’

GRUH.

‘I’ll explain later.’

“Captain…”

“Please?”

Christ, Steve looks about ready to cry.

RRRRAAAARRRR.

‘I know, buddy. The tears are awful.’

There’s a conference between the green lady and a couple of others, and then this girl, she looks like she’s not much older than Valeria was, steps forward.

“Nico…” The green lady looks really unhappy about this little girl getting anywhere near them, and Bucky honestly can’t blame her.

“Baroness, I can judge. If his friend can be healed, I can help.”

Bucky’s ready. If this is his big chance he’s pulling out all the stops. ‘LADY. LADY!!! OVER HERE, LADY!’

She walks over to where Steve continues to cradle the body, and takes a look, lays a hand on the blood-stained forehead for a minute, then looks up sadly.

“Captain, I can heal the wounds, I can even bring this body to life. But his spirit is gone. All that would remain would be an empty husk. I don’t know your friend, but I can’t imagine he would want that.”

‘LADY! _LAAAADY!!!_ ’ Bucky’s taken control and he’s jumping up and down, waving their arms around. Come on, a magic-user had GOT to notice this. ‘I’M RIGHT _HERE!!!!_ ’

The guards are really not happy about the dangerous animal that’s going nuts. Bucky could not give less of a shit. ‘COME ON, LADY!!’ Shit, what was her name? ‘NICO! _NIIIICOOOOO!_ ’

The kid looks up sharply. Unfortunately, the guards are starting to get antsy, apparently unwilling to let Devil get any closer to her. One of them leans back to throw her spear, when the girl says, “Dinosaur?”

And then, reverberating in their skull in a way Devil really doesn’t like, **DINOSAUR?**

‘Yeah, yeah, I mean, no, not a dinosaur, it's me! BUCKY!’

She’s looking at them weird, but spears are not getting thrown, and then she turns to Steve. “Is your friend called Bucky?”

***

“Why is there an extra arm?” asks Nico.

She looks sorry that she asked.

 **BUCKY, THIS IS VERY UNUSUAL**.

‘Yes, ma’am, I imagine it is.’

RAAARRR.

‘Shut it, Devil. She’s helping. She can jump inside your brain if she has to. I’ll make it up to you later.’

GRRAW.

**DO YOU WANT TO RETAIN THE BODY AS-IS, OR DO YOU WANT ME TO SWITCH THE ARMS?**

‘As-is? I mean, there's kind of a giant hole in the head that's really pretty disturbing to look a---Um, what? Switch the-- oh. Um.’

**OR I SUPPOSE I COULD GIVE YOU THREE ARMS?**

Devil is tilting his head and sending the impression of a tail made out of the second metal arm and, wow, that really is not making Bucky feel comfortable at all.

‘Humans, don’t need tails, Devil.’

RARRRK

‘I mean, tails are cool and all, but we don’t really--’

**THAT’S KIND OF WEIRD THOUGH. I MEAN, I DON’T WANT TO JUDGE YOU, BUT I DON’T THINK IT WOULD BE SUPER-USEFUL AND I’M KIND OF AFRAID I MIGHT DO IT WRONG?**

‘Do… it… wrong…’

**SO, YOU MIGHT WANT TO STICK TO JUST TWO BUT I COULD PROBABLY SWITCH THE RIGHT AND LEFT. MAYBE.**

HRAWK.

‘Devil, seriously I do not need a tail! Just stick with the body that’s mostly whole, ma’am. I’ll adjust.’

**REALLY? YOU SURE?**

“RAAARRRRRR.” Devil’s grabbing at his head and missing completely. Guess some human gestures are rubbing off.

‘Yes, I’m sure, I’m totally sure. Steve can just keep the other arm as some kind of souvenir.’

She wrinkles her nose at that. **GROSS**.

‘Yeah, don’t worry, I’m totally not letting Steve keep the arm as a souvenir.’

***

Once they sort out the arm situation (and thank you so much, Steve, for the fact that there even is an arm situation), they have Steve bring the body inside a building and (Bucky doesn’t see this, but he’s pretty sure) tenderly lay it out on a bed. Devil and Bucky are guided around the building until they reach the room’s open window. Steve has taken up a position hovering right over the bed, as if to make sure nothing else happens to the body. Nico asks him to step back nicely a couple of times, but eventually she just yells at him until he eventually gives her some space.

In the end, the actual magic part takes very little time. One moment, Bucky’s in Devil’s brain and they’re sniggering as Steve sheepishly leans against the wall. A moment later, he’s blinking his eyes open and he has the mother of all headaches.

“Bucky?!?”

At least three people yell at once, and Bucky irritably groans, “shut up, Steve, sleeping” and then he is being grabbed and cuddled and Steve is maybe getting a little carried away and Bucky’s pretty sure there are other people here. Steve hugs a little too hard and Bucky makes a huff, before the world goes dark for a while.

***

The second time he wakes up is a little clearer. The room has gotten darker and it looks like there are lamps lit on the wall. He’s tucked under some blankets and his head is resting on what feels like Steve’s thigh (what, he’s done that a lot). There’s a hand stroking through his hair, it feels nice, calm.

“You back with me, Buck?”

He rubs his face on Steve’s thigh and answers, “I never really left, Steve.”

Steve gives a brittle little chuckle, and his voice is kind of twisted up when he answers, “Yeah, that’s what Miss Minoru said. You’ve been with me the whole time. Well, with Devil.”

Bucky looks up sharply, because that voice doesn’t bode well. Steve’s looking into the distance, where he’s probably seeing some things in a whole new light. It’s Steve, so it’s a safe bet he’s feeling guilty. Steve’s always ready to be guilty.

“I’ve been with you since you pulled that stunt with the anchor in the Killiseum.”

“Stunt, huh? I needed to find you, seemed like the best option. Since you never told me you were leaving.”

Oh-ho, that’s not guilt, that’s _anger_. _Steve Rogers_ is angry at him for taking a risk.

“Look, Steve, Doom made an offer I couldn’t refuse--just like he did with you. I would have told you if I could.”

Steve’s looking away, and really? “Steve, the minute I could I tried to tell you what was happening!”

“What--oh, the rocks?”

“And the penny drops. Yes, Steve, did you think that Devil just spontaneously learned to write?”

“I didn’t know what to think.”

“Yeah, that much is obvious, Mr. Drown-My-Sorrows-in-Hulk-Piss!” Bucky’s mad now, pushes himself up to kneel above Steve and yell at him, except Steve beats him to the punch.

“I thought you were dead!”

Steve looks _anguished_ and it just stops Bucky cold. He managed to ignore a lot about the situation because, well, he knew he wasn’t dead and he had to keep it together. He knew that he'd get back to Steve as soon as he could. Steve on the other hand… He lets himself think, for one moment, about what it would be like if this were the other way around. And then he’s leaning forward and wrapping his arms around Steve, holding him and petting his head while Steve starts sobbing on his chest. That is, until Steve’s hair gets caught in his right hand.

“Urk. Ow!”

“Sorry. Sorry!”

They both look at it, once Steve’s hair’s untangled. “Right hand, huh.”

“I looked,” Steve gulps, looks down and away, “I looked for your body. The, um. The Red King said he sent your head to Doom.”

Bucky’s opening and closing his right hand, testing the range of motion on the arm. It’s weird, he remembers doing the same thing when he got his left arm in the super soldier program.

“I don’t really remember. I mean, we were fighting and he was tough. I thought I had him...”

“Bet you dropped your right.”

“Yeah,” he looks over at Steve, half-smiles wryly. “Always thinking you’re going to be there.”

A beat of silence.

“God, I missed you,” Bucky just blurts it out, almost a sob. “Every day I’d see you and I couldn’t touch you, couldn’t talk with you.” He swipes at his eyes with his left hand. “Couldn’t yell at you for being an idiot.”

Steve shakes his head, pulls him close. “Yeah, I missed you too.” He smiles into Bucky’s hair. “Even the yelling.”

And then Bucky’s looking up and Steve’s looking down, and there’s no reason in the world not to, so they’re kissing. Kissing like there’s nothing else in the world. For long moment there’s not. And then--

“ROOOOOOOAAAARRRRRR!!!!”

Bucky smiles into the kiss, then turns to look up at Devil. “Yeah, buddy, I’m back.”

“RRRRAAAAARRRRR!!!!”

“Yeah, remember I told you about kissing? The warm-rock feeling.”

“ARRROOOO!”

He laughs a little. “Yeah, no more crying on your snout. Right, Steve?”

“You understand him?” Steve says, looking at Bucky like he hung the moon.

“Well, yeah. I mean, he’s my warbound, right? Like us, but without the kissing.”

Steve laughed. “Yes, right. My warbound. Both of you.”

“All of us.”

“ARRROOOO.”

**… and thus endeth the Chronicle**

 

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, this was a ton of fun for me to write, so I hope you enjoyed it. To make this all work out, I ended up using two other comics from Secret Wars/Battleworld, The Runaways and A-Force. The end of The Runaways offered an opportunity to have a body for Bucky (and fix that comic a bit as well), and I figured that our Steve and Bucky deserved to end up somewhere as nice as Arcadia prior to the events in A-Force #1. Hopefully these guys get some downtime so that they can get acquainted with Bucky's new body.


End file.
